part4

friends getting saved.

I'm interested, but I'm not passionate. I'm not passionate about your family getting saved.

I'm interested, but I'm not passionate. See, the thing is, I'm not supposed to be. You're supposed to be.

My job as your pastor is to try and equip you, encourage you, exhort you to go and do it.

Now, you might have a family member dying.

I'll go pray for them, but I'm not gonna stay up all night, night after night after night, and get before God like you will.

Because they're your family members.

They're people that you desperately love. See, I'm supposed to be praying passionately and trying to reach those that God has given me. And you're supposed to be doing the same for yours. And that's how the kingdom of God is built. We all play a part.

We all work together. We all reach different people and we're all responsible for it.

We all have a place and a part and a role to play.

Amen.

Evangelism is not a program. It's, it's a commitment to something beyond yourself. See, if you turn up in your church or whatever it is that's running some sort of evangelism program, you're released from your responsibility. Yeah, throw a check in there, mate. She'll be right.

We've got an evangelism.

Yeah, we've got a missions program. You don't ever go. You don't ever preach the gospel or take— well, I'm not a preacher. Preach means to proclaim. It means to share and talk passionately about. It means to be so excited about what Christ has done in you, you want him to do it in someone else. The problem is, if you're not excited about what Christ has done in you, I doubt that Christ has actually ever done anything in you. You're probably not saved, mate. And that's just the reality of it. If you're not excited about who Jesus Christ is and what Jesus Christ has done, if there's nothing that enthralls you and thrills you, then there's probably nothing there, mate. Simple fact. Because once he gets you, you're got. And nothing is more important. I don't care if it's boardroom, conference meeting, contract, government position. When Jesus gets hold of you, you'll die for the reality of the truth of who he is. And that's why I doubt that the number of people who call themselves Christians in America— because we don't. We're a nation of preference, not convictions. We're not moved. By the state of our world or the state of the church. We're moved by comfort and convenience. That's why you can no longer go to a so-called Christian bookstore and find anything on church history or theology. It's Christian romance. It's this dribble, this feel-good, touch-me-feel-you, tree-hugging dribble. It's absolutely ridiculous what we put in there. We call it a Christian book or a That's not, man, nothing of any substance. It's milk. It's baby's food. It's nothing of substance. People don't want to think. They, they want it to turn up in, in 90-second sound bites. And it's the same with evangelism. We want it to be someone else's responsibility. We want someone else to clean the church, someone else to do the babies, someone else to look out for the youth, someone else to park the cars. We don't— the Bible's pretty clear.

We all have a role to play.

We've all got to be pulling this net in. The harvest is ripe, but the laborers are few.

That's right.

The lack of laborers does not indicate the lack of a harvest. It's the lack of the harvest that indicates that very few people are prepared to get off their rusty dusty and actually do something about it.

Why?

Because we're complacent. We don't care. We don't care really about your neighbor. You'd much rather whine and gripe about the state of his lawn than mow the dang thing for him. If that concerns you, take a Saturday morning once a month and mow the dang thing. Just get over yourself. Go and help the fellow. Maybe he's crippled. Maybe he's so broke he can't afford gas at the moment. Maybe his life is in such a mess. Maybe he's too busy. His business has taken off and he doesn't know what to do. He can't, he can't work out where to get a lawn service from. I don't know. But get interested. Find a reason to connect beyond yourself to someone else. At some point, this gospel, this good news, has to belong to somebody else. It just can't be yours. There's no point having it. A light on the hill is supposed to shine. It's not supposed to be stuck under some bucket somewhere, sitting in some church somewhere. Not supposed to be some Christian romance novel somewhere. It's totally irrelevant. Most of those novels are just poorly written anyway. I'd rather read Lee Child, John Grisham, Isaac Asimov, anybody but some of that dribble. If you're not seeing souls saved, If you're not seeing lives turn around, if you are not seeing miracles happening and healings happening, then what's wrong with you? See, you are the Church of Jesus Christ. You are the Church of Jesus Christ. You and I are the Church of Jesus Christ. When, when we meet in a building, that's a collective gathering of the saints with the kingdom of God in each of us, the work of Christ working and saving and touching our hearts and souls. And when we walk out that door, we have a moral, spiritual obligation To basically reach out and touch those people with the love of God that is evident in our heart and soul. We gather to encourage and we go out to conquer. We gather to encourage and we go out to conquer. We gather to encourage and we go out to conquer. Altar calls should not be about, about leading someone to the Lord. Altar calls should be the celebration of those that Christ has drawn to himself during the week that you were involved in. But man, I'd love to see the day they talk about hundreds flooding the altar for Jesus. I would love to see not 100 souls flood to the altar. I would love to see 200 or 300 people come down to the altar bringing their friends and family members. That, that is church. This dribble we have where we pump up figures to raise funds and we call it a missions trip, we call it an outreach program. You, if you do the math calculation on how many people have been saved in the Philippines, it's like 7 times the population. It's rubbish. It's a fundraising stinking exercise. And it's the same with the churches here. Why?

Why?

Why do we need another Sam's Club when this entire community is crying for, for, for more like a Starbucks, somewhere to sit down and have intimate contact and connection with people?

Amen. Why?

Because you can get lost in stadium seating.

You don't have to have integrity. You don't have to have vulnerability.

You don't have to take a chance that you're going to be screwed over like you were at the last place.

But listen, I'm telling you, you got to take a chance. You have to. You just have to. Listen, you might have prayed for someone and they, they've never been healed. You might have tried to lead someone and tell someone about Christ and it never went well.

Just Get over it.

We're talking about the hearts and lives of men and women, and at some point we have to get beyond what we don't have and start to get after what we do have. We've got to turn it around. The kingdom of God—it's like a net that is thrown by many people, a big net that's thrown by many people, and it needs many people and fish of different kinds are caught. Different kinds. Different kinds. Different kinds. You can reach people I can't reach. I can reach people you can't reach. The church is not supposed to be a country club. We're not supposed to drive the same thing, look the same thing, say the same thing, meet the same dress regulations. It is supposed to be the great leveler. You're supposed to have the CEO of the biggest company in the world work on the door, work in the nursery. Why? Because that's where it's needed. You don't get privilege and position in the church. And as a pastor, that— I know that. I know that. Don't elevate people to pulpit positions.

Elevate people into function positions. But the pew does not get to dictate the function. The shepherd gets to lead the sheep, and everybody, including the shepherd, gets involved in the activities of what needs to be built. Don't argue about function and role. When the basic job just isn't getting done. There is so much work to be done. If we'd stop whining and get about building, it'd be a good thing.

Anyway, that'll do. That's church. I love you, church, very much. It's got to change. Our world has to change. You know, I met with the boys a couple of days ago and we were having a chat about church and next year and where it's going.

Steve Hooper.

Angel had a dream one night and the Lord came to her and basically said, tell Steve he's got to preach every day like this is the last time he'll preach to these people. And I got together with Steve and Scotty and we both, we all 3 of us sat around, man, we just apologized to each other. Scotty said, I haven't led worship like it was the last chance these people would ever have a chance to worship God. Steve said, I haven't dedicated time to preaching like I was supposed to. And I admitted the same. I said, I haven't dedicated time to my personal walk with Christ like this is the last possible day on the earth. We sat around there and just repented and cried and just thanked God and prayed for our church. Things are changing, folks. It's just time. It's time for a different church because the world is desperate in need of it. Amen. Anyway, I love you. I've got to race to the airport. Cheers. Well, second Saturday's coming up, man. Just invite guys. Come bring them down to Beans and Cream. Have coffee. Let's lead them to Christ. Bring people to church. Lead them to Christ. Next week we've got this extraordinary meeting and then we've got the Christmas special and then we're off for a couple of weeks. Love you. Bless you. Don't forget to give because TXU will chase me, I'm sure. Hey church, I love you. If you've got any questions, just text me, email me, text each other, do something. Cheers.